Fog Shrouds Orange County

A thick blanket of fog covered most of Orange County’s coastal communities early this morning, prompting partial closure of John Wayne Airport and snarling rush-hour traffic along the San Diego Freeway, authorities said.

“Visibility here is zero,” Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Joe Davies said at 8:30 a.m. from the John Wayne Airport tower.

Davies said all early morning commercial flights, which normally begin at 7 a.m., were either canceled or delayed. Flights resumed about 9 a.m., but the changes in flight schedules forced air commuters to make last-minute adjustments to their plans.

“We sat in the plane for about an hour, then were told to wait,” said Greg Paydock, one of dozens of businessmen scrambling to banks of phone booths. “That was frustrating.”

Other passengers sat in the airport coffee shops and bars or browsed in the gift shops to pass the time. Some even caught a quick nap.

“You can hang him from a meat hook, and he’ll fall asleep,” said Irvine businessman Pat Diamond about his partner, Phil McCarty, as the latter slouched in a chair, lost in sleep.

Rick Dittman, a meteorologist for WeatherData, based in Wichita, Kan, said the fog caused problems in many parts of the state.

“The fog is pretty much widespread up and down the coast,” he said, adding that the fog was created by a storm front in the Gulf of Alaska.

Law-enforcement authorities reported numerous rush-hour traffic collisions as motorists tried to get to work in visibility as low as 25 feet.